Special Feature
Developing Talent Through Mentoring
Lockheed Martin
Mentoring offers the opportunity to convey the importance of the tacit or soft skills of leadership
A finishing component of the Grab Hold of Your Career initiative is mentoring engagements, which Lockheed Martin sees as vital to the success of its business. The intent is to bring together all of the company’s mentoring initiatives under a single umbrella designed to pique employee interest and provide the resources and skills for employees to engage in constructive mentoring relationships. Mike Thomas, company vice president and general manager and an executive champion of mentoring, looks at it this way: “We are a people business, and our success relies on the interaction between people. We all need to weave mentoring into our daily work lives. All of us should be getting to know people and getting them to know us. If we do this, we will connect the organization from top to bottom and become more successful as a business.” Grab Hold of Your Career mentoring applies a common approach to one-on-one mentoring programs across the organization. The company views mentoring as an excellent way to enhance employee development, transfer organizational knowledge, and bolster employees’ engagement in their work and commitment to the company. Quarterly workshops are designed to provide skills and information for current mentors and their proteges as well as individuals interested in initiating their own mentoring relationships. Employees are encouraged to take advantage of the workshops and to consider talking with their manager or someone they admire. They are
advised to think about what they want to discuss and some objectives for the conversation; the process may well establish a relationship they can work with on a regular basis. In turn, managers are encouraged to facilitate mentoring for employees unsure of whom to approach for mentoring by suggesting people inside or outside the employee’s environment. After Stephanie Herr, a software applications engineer, decided that a mentoring relationship would benefit her career, she found and worked with her mentor, Chris D’Ascenzo, director of Business Development, to mutually established goals and objectives. “My mentoring relationship with Chris has provided me with an expert to gain knowledge from, opportunities outside of my work environment, and someone to talk to about professional matters and school work,” says Stephanie. “During our mentoring sessions, we have discussed many different issues. He’s really been able to help me focus on my career development, where I want to be and what I have to do to get there. He also has helped me to gain a better understanding into different areas of the business, which has broadened my experiences at Lockheed Martin.” Mentoring is beneficial to both the mentor and mentored employee. “I learned a lot about the issues that Stephanie and her peer group encounter that I would not necessarily have been aware of but that help me be a better leader,” says Chris, adding, “One of the fulfilling things about being in the mentor role is that you
can add some dimensions and perspective to professional issues for someone else’s growth.” Mentoring offers the opportunity for employees to appreciate what isn’t covered in technical training courses yet can be just as vital to their career success—understanding relationships. Auretha Baldwin, an engineering manager and a strong advocate of mentoring put it this way: “Mentoring offers the opportunity to convey the importance of the tacit or soft skills of leadership.”
Support for Diversity Means Support for the Business While Lockheed Martin’s Grab Hold of Your Career initiative offers opportunities for individual fulfillment in many ways and goes a long way towards fostering a sense of participation by employees and managers in building careers, it is also very much in the company’s best business interests. Lockheed Martin Chairman, President and CEO Bob Stevens explains that the company has embarked on a course to build a fully inclusive and supportive work environment, and for good reason. “Besides being the right thing to do, it makes good business sense. With a shift in demographics occurring as many in the workforce approach retirement, we need to keep our experienced skills base for as long as possible while attracting and retaining the best talent from an increasingly diverse world,” says Stevens. “This allows us to effectively foster both innovation and institutional knowledge to assure our long-term success.”
Profiles in Diversity Journal
PDJ July/August 2005
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